Russia has no grounds for air strikes at ISIL in Iraq – Peskov

Russia has no grounds for air strikes at ISIL in Iraq, the Russian President’s Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Nov 5.

“We have received no such requests from Iraq yet,” he said.

Earlier, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that he would welcome Russian air strikes at Jihadists in his country. Speaker of Russia’s Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said that if Iraq asked for such an operation, Russia would consider its political and military expediency. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford said that the Iraqi authorities were not going to ask the Russians to strike ISIL in their country. He said that it would be hard for the Americans to help the Iraqis if they let Russian troops into their territory.